Published: 22 February 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Israel's expulsion begins: First asylum seekers jailed for refusing deportation (Haaretz)
All asylum seekers at the Holot detention facility began a hunger strike on Tuesday night to protest the imprisonment earlier in the day of seven Eritreans who refused to leave Israel.
It was the first time that asylum seekers have been jailed for refusing to leave.
The seven Eritreans who were summoned for pre-deportation hearings Tuesday morning were taken to Saharonim Prison immediately afterward, apparently due to fear they would flee.
They had previously been held at the Holot open detention facility and were among the first to receive deportation notices a month ago. Two of them survived torture in Sinai en route here, but their asylum requests were denied.
First seven asylum seekers refusing deportation are imprisoned (Times of Israel)
750 Eritrean asylum seekers in Holot Detention Centre begin hunger strike to protest the detention
